Fourteenth
by Antares Starfire
Summary: "Fool. Did you honestly believe that the host body for the fourteenth could be without Sin? You didn't bring salvation to all those souls; it was the left hand of God!" RATED M FOR SAFETY
1. Chapter 1

_Fool. Did you honestly believe that the host body for the fourteenth could be without Sin? You didn't bring salvation to all those souls; it was the left hand of God!_

There is something profoundly eerie about waking up, in the middle of the night, just when a thunderstorm is starting to break down on the unsuspecting world, to the face of a man standing just a few inches away from one's nose. Believe me, I know. My body jerked away in an instinctive motion and I managed to silence the scream that threatened to escape from my mouth. The stiffing of my muscles managed to make me avoid kicking Link to the other side of the room, but I still almost hit him with my leg. With careful movements, so that he wouldn't wake the other up, I disentangled my feet from the sheets and climbed back up to my bed. The thunders sounded again and a flash of light briefly illuminated the room, allowing me to once more confirm that, whatever fashion sense Link possessed, it definitely didn't apply to eyebrows.

I was tired. Burned up, used. I hadn't had a good night's sleep in weeks. Well, except for the two days I spent unconscious after that mess with Phantom Thief G. Things really took a turn for the worse when the Earl decided it was a good idea to seal off my power to control the Ark and then unleash a battalion of Akuma inside a warded building with a lot of children inside; Which just goes to show exactly how much of a jerk the Earl of the Millennium really is.

The Earl of the Millennium. No one really knows exactly who, or _what_, he is. A thousand years old spirit, the Devil, whatever, if you see this guy you don't listen to a word he says. You turn the other way and run like hell before he has the chance to talk you into sacrificing the everlasting soul of your most important person and give your body up to be used by the Akuma he just created. I met him the first time right after my foster father died. He suddenly appeared out of nowhere and asked me if I would like to see Mana Walker again. I was just a kid and I'd just lost the only person who'd ever cared about me. I didn't know any better; I said yes. I called Mana's name in earnest and that summoning brought his soul back from the Other Side and trapped him inside a dummy the Earl creates for that purpose. The dummy then kills whoever called its soul and takes his body, infiltrating the society. Mana didn't do it the right way. Oh, he tried to kill me when the Earl commanded it – no Akuma can deny him anything; they're slaves to his will, regardless of the wishes of the imprisoned soul. But he cursed me first, his bladed arms cut into my left eye and the time and pain (and fear) it took for that to happen was enough to awaken something in me. My left arm, which had been shrivelled and blackened, with a sick colour of dried blood my entire life, _changed_, becoming a white metallic claw which destroyed Mana's Akuma body before he had the time to act accordingly to his master's orders. The Earl just slipped away, back to wherever he came from. He doesn't usually linger if he can leave the dirty work to his toys. I survived. My hair turned white from the chock of killing my most important person. I was found by my Master, Cross Marian. He explained that my hand wasn't just some horrible limb that had come to my body by chance or for the amusement of some twisted mind. It was a holy power called Innocence which was the only way to counter the Earl's machines. I lived as his apprentice for the following years. Learning to use my powers, my Innocence, to destroy the Earl's minions and, who knows, maybe help stop him once and for all. Then, one day, he just told me to make my way to the Dark Order's headquarters, hit me with a hammer on the head and left before I regained my consciousness. Typical of Master.

The storm rumbled again. There was little chance of me managing to get back to sleep so I might as well do something productive with my spare time. I silently got up and started to dress in the same fashion. Living as a student to General Cross grants you that ability. When I was younger, Master used to through every little thing he had within his reach (chairs, hammers, and all that) whenever I woke him up from his slumber. He had a light sleep, something I'd also earned after a few years as an Exorcist and learned to identify as a defence mechanism: You don't fall into deep sleep when there's a chance of someone murdering you while you're out of it. The Earl doesn't use only Akuma to do his jobs. The slightest noise would wake him up. After a few bumps in the head, doing things completely silent becomes natural.

I got to the door right as Link let out a light snore. I opened the door – barely enough to slip through, so it wouldn't creak – and got out, closing it after me.

Link is my overseer, here in the Order, and self-appointed caretaker. He takes his job very seriously, which is way he insists on sleeping in my room every night. I tried to explain to him just exactly how much such situation inconveniences me, how awkward it is to me, but it was to no avail. He keeps insisting on it. Most of the times I manage to get inside and lock the door before he manages to follow, leaving him pounding on the door, threatening to call Inspector Revellier. It's a bluff, of course. I never open and he's yet to call the inspector. Tonight things hadn't gone the way I'd expected. And it was all Lavi's fault. He'd been harassing me about this new nickname he'd gotten for Link (something along the lines of "spots"). Lavi's voice has a droning quality that seeps into your mind and can pretty much keep you from doing anything, if you're not careful. It must come with the job, although, now that I think about it, Bookman's technique is much more refined. I swear the old man's voice can be like a Komrin II running havoc in your head, wiping it clean of everything he doesn't want to be there. Given the tendency I seem to have for rambling inside my head, I'd probably stand to gain if I was to expose myself more to Bookman's lectures. Therapy for the unruly mind an all that. Anyway, contrary to norm, Link didn't rise to the bait and, instead of trying to beat Lavi for the new nickname, used the distraction to slip past my defences and get inside the room. And what's worse, when I turned around to censure Lavi for condemning to a night of unsettlement, the little bastard had already disappeared. Which kind of makes me think they were working together in this little ploy.

My boots where the only thing to be heard while I walked the corridors of the church. The Black Order was never, in its entirety, asleep, but the dwelling levels of the building could become markedly empty during the night. The lower levels of the basement, where the Science Bureau had its quarters, or the Entrance floors were always being patrolled by guards and Finders, keeping strangers from coming in. And of course there were the golems keeping watch around the perimeter. But we were Exorcists, the blood of the Order and we were left more or less to our own devices. It wasn't as if one of us would be working for the Earl.

Well… at least that was how it was for everyone else. I knew I wasn't all that trusted by the majority of the Black Order. My comrades, people I'd fought alongside, protected (and got protected by) from danger, trusted me, of course. But those were just a handful, and most of them were Exorcists. No one said it but the reason Link guarded me was known to everyone. It wasn't to protect me so much as to protect others from me. Although I can't say I have much faith in his abilities, when he fails to wake up after I fall from my bed almost on top of him. Why protect others from me? Because I have the "memories" of the Fourteenth seeding inside of me.

About half a year ago I'd been sent on a mission along with Lavi, Bookman and Lenalee, to find my old master General Cross Marian. The Earl had apparently upped the stakes and started to kill the generals, the most powerful Exorcists in the Black Order. And he'd gotten his most powerful pawns thrown into the game as well: the Noah Family. Super-humans with incredible resilience, I'd seen a building fall on top of one of them and he'd come out of it without a scratch. His clothes hadn't even been inconvenienced by the debris. On top of that, each of them had special abilities: Tykki could choose what he wanted to touch – be it air, walls or even organs. He could just slip his hand into your chest and take out your heart without even a droplet of blood -, another Noah, Road, could move into another dimension and entrap people there, and another one, Lust, could shape shift at will into anything she desired. Just to name a few. And they all had the power to destroy Innocence. There are a total of thirteen of them – or so we'd thought. During our mission, we learned that my master had been shadowing the Earl and the Noah in order to learn the location of the fabled Ark. Not only he'd managed that, but he had also appeared to have infiltrated the very Ark and had been working out a way to gain control of it and, hopefully the Egg, a device which the Earl apparently uses to create Akuma. But we also learned something else. Our pursuit of Master leaded us to Japan, where things went downhill real fast. We were trapped inside the Ark and to make things worse we were informed by an overjoyed Tykki that the thing was pretty much falling apart and would be destroyed in a few hours.

In those desperate times I managed to awaken the full potential of my Innocence, the Sword of Exorcism. It's supposed to exorcise the evil inside a person – say like a Noah – but instead, when I used it on Tykki, it'd released the full power of his heritage and made him loose control over the Noah that inhabited him. We'd be screwed if my Master hadn't appeared. He beat Tykki with insulting ease and even chatted with the Earl as if the room around us wasn't falling apart – it was. When everything seemed lost he made Tim, my golem, lead me to a hidden room in the Ark with a piano. I played it, gained control of the Ark, saved everybody, and we all went back home victorious. And with both the Egg and the Vessel. But there had been more. You see merely playing the piano wouldn't enable one to control the Ark. For one to be able to do that, one would have to have the Power of the Musician. It wasn't until afterwards, back in the Order, that I finally learned what exactly that meant.

There was another member of the House of Noah, appropriately called the Fourteenth, who had turned against the Earl and tried to destroy him. He was the one with the power to control the Ark, something he did with music, earning him the title of "The Musician". That much seemed to be sort of nice. What _wasn't_ nice was to learn that he'd been Mana's brother and, before the Earl murdered him, had managed to pass his "memories" into an unsuspecting child. Guess who? Once the memories awaken, they start to erode the person they'd been planted into and slowly turn him or her into the Fourteenth. I'd frozen when Master told me that. I mean, what else was I supposed to do? All sort of questions started to pour into my mind: Did Mana know? And if he did, was all the love and care he'd shown me really meant for me, or was it for the sleeping Fourteenth inside me? Even worse was when Master informed me that I'd have to kill those close to me _when_ I turned into the Fourteenth. When. There wasn't even an "if". It was as if Master had already given up hope for me. Then he hugged me. It'd been the first time he'd done something like that to me and it'd been the last as well. He turned up missing, supposed dead, the next night. Of course all suspicions fell upon the "traitor". Inspector Revellier decided that, although he acknowledged the Fourteenth had been against the Earl, there weren't any assurances he'd be on the same side as the Black Order. As such I'd have to be put under constant surveillance. Hence Link.

I passed the stone arcs that marked the entrance to the library. My steps echoed across the empty room as I made my way through the shelves and started searching for my books. These sorts of revelations can keep you up at night. Being my stubborn self, I had decided I would not give in to the Noah inside me and set myself in a crusade to gather as much information as I could, in hopes of finding _something_, no matter how small, that could help me stand against the incoming tempest.

I took the books to a secluded table. It was my favourite place in the entire library because it stood hidden by the shelves which meant less people would notice me, which meant less staring and whispering.

The hours passed as I browsed through the pages. Somewhere bellow I could hear Chef Jerry, bellowing orders to his subordinates in the kitchen, getting ready for serving breakfast to the Order members.

So far it had all been a wild goose chase. It had been a week since I'd started, and reading most of the entire night really gets you going through the books. I'd searched the entire Old Testament but it all came down to nothing, there was no reference to anything remotely resembling to "Earl of the Millennium". Another puzzling fact: there is a sole reference for "Noah". It tells the story of a great flood and how a guy named Noah was instructed by God about how to build a gigantic ship to gather animals that were to survive the holocaust. The ship was Noah's Ark and with it, Noah sailed the waters safe from arm and eventually released the animals to rebuild the entire planet's population.

Yeah… I got the inconsistencies too.

Obviously there are thirteen too many Noah out there for my liking (well, fourteen, if you want to get technical). Even more apparent, they are not the good guys. Otherwise they wouldn't keep killing people for no reason (although, from some nut jobs I've seen here in the Order, this is a somewhat dubious argument – see Kanda, for example. He believes he's a destroyer).

I remember hearing something about a flood. I think it was Bookman who said it; in one of the rare times he shares some secrets with me (to be fair, Bookman does not share secrets with anyone, to my knowledge). Or maybe it was Lavi, in one of those moments where he sprouts out secret information only Bookmen are supposed to know about (It is rather entertaining to see the ensuing beating by the Old man, if I say so myself). If I remember correctly, Bookman referred to the Flood as the designation "popular" history refers to the three days of darkness, the time of chaos that resulted from the final battle against the Earl – which we apparently lost. But if that is true, then the very foundation of the Church is based on lies and the story of the Old Testament may not have happened in any way like what got registered in the Bible. Which means we've been believing in something that's been wrong all the time. Which means someone, somewhere, stands to gain something out of this whole ordeal. This troubles me, because, so far as I can see, the only one who could benefit from this situation is the very Earl. And if the Church is being lenient on this, it could mean that… well… I don't really want to go there. I don't want to believe that I'm fighting on the wrong side. That might not exist another side at all in this war, that this is not a war… but a game. Where we're pawns to the Earl's play.

My Master had told me to listen to the Fourteenth. That there was another side to this damned war. But how do you trust a guy who is sure to destroy you so that he can take your body? Not to mention the fact that the Fourteenth hadn't been exactly forthcoming when it came to making contact with his 'host'. I mean, I suppose there have been these weird dreams… In fact, the reason I was awake at the moment was exactly that: a dream. I'd been having the same dream over and over again for most of the nights since the mission where we'd recruited Timothy.

It seemed nice enough, the first times I dreamt it. Apart from the pain and blood couching from having my own Sword of Exorcism stuck in me, pinning me against a wall. The entire landscape is one big waste, full of debris from destroyed buildings. These all have a greyish colour to them, which gives me the impression of them being pretty old. The sky is always the same: a red sunset. Then Mana comes along.

The first few nights, I was overjoyed by this fact. I mean, usually when Mana appears in my dreams, he's either dying some horrible death – inflicted by me – or screaming obscenities while trying to murder me. Sometimes I get both alternatives at the same time. But in this dream he's smiling. Real-Happiness smiling! Forget the self-impaling with a broadsword, the dream seemed fantastic. Mana, being the hero I always thought he was, saves me from the pain, extracts me from the sword, and leads child-me into a far away tower of light, with the shape of a crux.

After a few times, though, I started to notice some… Well. I suppose you may call them irregularities.

I've lived with Mana a good portion of my life so I had a good grasping of how he used to react. I don't think there's anyone in the whole world who would have been able to predict Mana's reactions and thoughts as accurately as me.

Mana talks to me, in that dream. Calling me. But, has he does so, he starts altering my name progressively into something I cannot understand.

That's not like Mana. The Mana I knew never called me anything other than 'Allen'. It was important to me, since I spent most of my life as a child being called rude names due to both my defective arm and status as a ragged abandoned child who'd do all kinds of stuff for a bit of food or money. Mana knew that, knew how my past had been harsh. He never talked about it but you could see that he was a person who had taken a lot of beatings from life and kept going through sheer guts and determination. I learned a lot from him. I learnt not to give up. I learnt not to take my frustration from my own situation on other people and to try and make things better for others. I guess that's why I started to work with him as a clown. Laughing does not cure physical illnesses, but it does take good care of a wounded soul. Because of that, he always addressed me as Allen. Maybe I'm just overanalysing things, but that particular aspect of the dream does not sit well with me at all. And then there's the light cross. In some ways it reminds me of the crosses people put on graveyards. A white stylized cross for my own personal funeral. The entire apparition gives of a feeling of wrongness, almost similar to the one one feels when near Dark Matter. To have that strong a feeling in a dream just sets me off. Coupled together, the whole thing feels as if Mana is leading me to an execution – and that pisses me off.

So I started suspecting something larger is at stake here. And I think it has to do with the Noah inside me. I need to know more. To understand just what is going on here.

The sound of footsteps attracts my attention.

Glancing up from my book, I saw what seemed to be a pile of books hovering above the ground. At first, I thought it could be some new invention of Komui's, at which point I prepared to make a smart move and bolt away from the library. You don't mess around with Komui's inventions. The last time he created something to help the Science Department with their paperwork, the entire Black Tower (the building which had served as a HQ for the Order before we moved to England) ended up trashed. Honestly I don't know how the Earl hasn't found our location yet; He just had to listen for the explosions. A closer inspection, however, showed that there was actually a person behind the books. The grunts and the heavy respiration of someone not used to much physical exercise hinted me towards the person's identity.

"Hey there, Johnny." I said, "You're up late… or is it up early?"

Johnny's a good soul. He's one of the few who isn't an exorcist who actually trusts me and accepts me even though he knows about my darker half – so to speak. He is sort of short and has these Bottle-bottom glasses that enlarge his eyes to bug proportions, but he had courage. He once stood up against a Noah, several Skulls, and a cartload of Akuma, just to protect a friend. Unfortunately we exorcists, the 'blood' of the Order, the 'Saviours' of humanity, arrived too late and Tapp died. The Earl's minions turned him into a sand zombie – which we call skulls. Once the transformation was consumed there was no way to turn him back and after we drove the invasion away, the skulls who'd stayed behind turned to dust before our eyes. He was Johnny's best friend. He was my friend as well. They tell me he recovered consciousness just before dying and made some comment about overtime. I smile at the memory.

"Huh?" is the breathless answer I get. I swear these lowly foreign commoners need to learn proper articulation from a true Englishman. Like me. Maybe I can talk Johnny into attending a gentleman's class of conduct taught by me. It would be good payback for those lessons in chess where he regularly beats me into submission with as few as two moves, "Oh. Allen. I hadn't realised there was someone else here." He set the books on my table, deftly moving my own volumes to get enough space for him. Johnny is a bit of a bookworm but I have to hand it to him: no one knows his way across hundreds of thousands of book towers as well as him. He eyed my tomes with a critical eye and turned to me, serious, "Did you find anything?"

Of all the people in the Order I know, Johnny is the only one aware of the project I am conducting. This is not to say I don't trust the others. It's just that, with my current status within the Black Order, it is probably best not to spread what I'm doing too much. With my luck, someone will probably see it as an attempt by the Fourteenth to gain some insight into the workings of the Church and try to imprison me or bind me in someway.

"Nothing. I'm running out of options Johnny; I don't know where else to look. My knowledge of religious history was never much to look at, anyway…"

"Huh, huh. You know what I'm thinking?" the little guy asked. I say little guy in a kind of moronic way, perhaps: up until some months ago I was as short as him. I appear to have hit a growth spurt of some kind, seeing as I've been getting taller with each week. I'm taller than Lavi! "Maybe you should try to talk with Bookman. In a secluded kind of way. Explain him what you want and why and maybe the old guy will help you."

"I don't know…" I hesitate a lot when it comes to let people inside my personal space, be it physical like my room or psychological like this particular issue. Maybe it has to do with my lonely infancy.

"I think it is for the best. What do you have to lose? The worst that can happen is you receiving a 'No'. But then again we have nothing to stand on as we are now. And I'm sure old man will not tell anyone if you ask him to keep secret." (sometimes, in his hurry to talk, Johnny swallows entire words in the middle of the speech. This is just another of the things I'll have to work on with my Gentleman's class)

"Maybe… Alright. I'll talk to the old man, when I get the chance." I decided.

"You do that!" Johnny said, turning around and making a move to attempt to raise the books once again. He wobbled dangerously and I walked quickly around the table to grab a few of them as well, splitting the tower into more even proportions.

"I'll help you with this."

Johnny gave me a tired nod. "Thanks. I have to take this to the basement. It's two flights of stairs: I don't know if I'd have managed it on my own."

I grunted in answer as I lifted my pile. Once the books were secure in my arms I followed Johnny out of the library, leaving my own books scattered around the place I had been sitting on.

People were starting to come to their senses. We get up kind of early, compared to normal folk's habits. We never know when we might be sent to the other side of the world for investigating some strange occurrence or retrieving a confirmed Innocence. Time is always against us. The Earl can move much more quickly than us. Even not counting their own Ark, because the bastard did build another when we stol- retrieved the original, he just has so many Akuma scattered around the globe that he practically doesn't need to move a finger in order to catch and destroy Innocence before we can get to it. Still, the halls weren't too crowded, yet. Which was a good thing given that, even with me helping Johnny, our respective stacks of books were so big that moving around became mostly guesswork.

I managed to catch up with him about halfway down the stairs to the ground level and asked, "What do you guys need all this for, anyway?"

Johnny huffed and puffed for a couple of paces more, before answering. Like a said, he isn't much of an athlete.

"Central is dissatisfied with us, right now. Komui hasn't sent the administrative reports as often as they'd like and now were stuck with revising all the stuff that as happened for the last five years. You're holding the last two years."

I grimaced. Central was _very_ strict about managing the Order and Komui's lax attitude towards paperwork was well known. As long as the missions were completed and, in the Chief's opinion – and mine as well – no one got hurt in the process, everything was fine. What importance were a few reports describing the techniques and the situation encountered? Well… I suppose I can understand: it is important for us to relay our experiences so that the fight against the Earl can be better conducted. We have to know our enemies to be able to outwit them. _Maybe that's exactly why dear Inspector Revellier has allowed you to continue living as an Exorcist…_ the thought jumped into my mind without a single warning, delivered in the scanting tone I used to use before I met Mana. I mulled over it almost the entirety of the way left to walk.

It was only when we were arriving at the Research Institute that I asked Johnny,

"How come you're carrying files and books worth three years and my stack is _still_ higher than yours?"

"That's because you joined the Order on the years covered by your books. Stuff got much more… interesting since you've been around!" he said cheekily.

I scowled.

**A.N.: Just a little something that jumped me while working. I'll update my other stories, eventually - don't worry I haven't abandoned them. I just needed an outlet from my regular writing materials, if you know what I mean. D. Gray-man is my favourite manga so I was afraid of screwing up with the world. This story is something that has been on my mind before I started the Nightshade, but I didn't feel comfortable with the rules of Allen's universe before. Anyway, here it is now. Tell me what you think.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter II

"WALKER!"

Ooh boy... Link's finally found out I escaped from my room without his notice and he's not happy about it.

"What were you thinking?" he marched up to me like a typhoon and starts giving me a tong lashing of the likes he enjoys giving to me, "Of all the irresponsible idiocies to do..." I'm pretty sure all the time he stands around me saying nothing he's actually preparing the next speech for the next time I step out of the line, "What would have happened if..."

I tune him out and concentrate on my lunch. It's always better to do that with Link. If I tried to defend myself I would just be adding more fuel to the fire.

"Well?" he finished with an imperious stare, "What do you have to say for yourself?"

I lifted my bowl of rice to his nose and said, brightly, "Want some breakfast?"

He gave a low growl of frustration and his hand shot to the hair, messing it up as he tried to reign in his feelings. He gave a look capable of reducing any normal folk to ashes and the stormed of to give Chef Jerry his order for breakfast.

I was still chuckling to myself when I heard the sound of a tray hitting the table to my side. I turned to see the newcomer with some curiosity: there isn't a lot of people willing to share meals at the same table I'm in, these days.

It was a girl, roughly my age (I think; I never really did commit the imprudence of asking the age of a lady. That would just be asking for trouble). Her hair is black, though not as dark as Kanda's, whose keratin filaments were so black they sometimes gave the impression of flashing blue. Once it stood arranged in twin tails so long they reached her tights. Now, with the exception of the side-buns, it barely scratched her neckline.

"Good morning, Allen-kun!" she greets me.

Lenalee is liked by everyone in the order and I'm no exception. Indeed, she even has stalkers; the worst of them being Bak-san from the Chinese Branch of the Black Order. I could hardly believe mine eyes when I discovered all the pictures he secretly keeps of her, during the brief tenure I had there, after Tykki destroyed my arm (just as a side note, Bak-san is extremely scared of Komui ever finding out he has those pictures, which makes for a great blackmail material). However I am convinced he actually has more of a long hair fetish because he seems to have lost most of the interest he harboured for Lenalee since she cut her hair and now appears to have transferred his worshipping to Miranda. I even caught him stealing glances at General Cloud Nine, which can't be good for your health, if her temper is anything like Master Cross'.

Lenalee and her brother, Komui, where the first ones to welcome me into the Order, back when I first reached the Dark Tower (our previous HQ) after Master Cross abandoned me unconscious, having slugged me on the head with a hammer (I don't consider that altercation with Mugen to be a welcome, although, from what I've come to understand about Kanda, that was a positively warm reception coming from him). Anyway, Komui is an expansive individual who considers everyone in the Order part of the family and, despite his reduced power outside the exorcist chain of command, always tries to be the wall that protects us, field operatives, from the fanatics in the higher ups of the Church. Sometimes I get the feeling that, to them, where just chess pieces in a strategy game, instead of living beings giving their lives for their war. He had a few faults too: he was too prone to crazy experiments, for example, like the time when he built a super-robot to try and free the Science Department from all the paperwork Central requires them to do (one day, the Earl will attack us and we'll go down without a fight because we didn't send the requirement form for engaging the enemy) and instead ended up by almost destroying the entire Dark Tower.

My room got busted up that night.

He is also a bit maniacal towards Innocence. After my first rehabilitation session with him I never damaged my arm again...

"Allen-kun?..." Lenalee asks hesitantly.

Oops. I must have lost myself in my recollections. I do that, sometimes.

"Sorry, Lenalee." I apologized, "I got distracted with my ruminations."

"Nothing too serious, I hope?"

There's a tense undertone to the question and it lingers around us for a moment.

As I said before, Lenalee was among the first to welcome into the Order. She was also one of the first I went to missions with. And it was during our first mission together that I truly got to see how great a friend she was.

Now don't go thinking that what happened had any of those sweetness dripping moments we often find on those cheesy romances for nobles. No: she proved her concern for me by slapping me silly. We'd been trying to solve a mystery concerning a town that had apparently gotten stuck on a time loop. Only once we got there we found out there was no way to escape the outer city walls unless we somehow discovered just what the hell was causing the problem. Eventually we ended up meeting Miranda, an unlucky woman who had come into contact with a very strange clock that later proved to actually be the innocence under disguise. Miranda had been chosen has a conformer for the Innocence and later joined our ranks, but not before things got complicated. We were ambushed by several level 2 Akuma and were overwhelmed, only to find ourselves at the mercy of a girl I later discovered as being part of the Noah Family. That was Road. At one point she asserted that she had taken a liking to me due to my concern with the Akuma and decided to test just how far I was ready to go for my beliefs. She ordered one of the Akuma to self-destruct. Now, unless it is struck down by Innocence, any other method of destroying the Earl's machines erases and kills the bound soul rather than releasing it. I was still a bit of a loner then ( more than I am now, I mean) and convinced that I could solve every problem with my hands, on my own. I rushed to the Akuma, trying to cut it down before the countdown reached the end, in an effort to save the soul I could see screeching in agony with my left eye. Of course I was too slow and the explosion from the self-destruction would probably burn me to a crisp. Lenalee was having none of that, though. She used her Innocence, Dark Boots, and scooped me out of the way, keeping me from dying but also from trying to save the Akuma. In my bitterness and frustration for my own failure, I ended up reacting in a way which, in hindsight, wasn't the most fair for my friend. I lashed out at her, angrily demanding to know why she had interfered. As if I could have been able to do anything if she hadn't... that's when the slapping started. After the whole affair was over, Lenalee had to spend some time bed ridden but , in the end, it didn't matter. She later gave me a tongue lashing when I tried to apologise (totally deserved), before she bordered the train and I was abducted by a group of frightened villagers who tried to convince (bully) me into helping them getting rid of Crowley.

But I'd started to learn. I could rely on friends. I wasn't alone. That realisation saved me from my self, I now realise. And, although I never told her, it represented a big step towards getting the true form of my Innocence, Crowned Clown.

After that, we hung with each other and the other guys. We went to missions together and got to be pretty good friends.

However, when Komui gave the standing order for the other exorcists to stop me if I ever turned into the Fourteenth – which ended by me asking them to kill me, if such thing happened -, things became somewhat strained between us. That day, she just stood there, after the communication, rigid like an alabaster statue, staring at me as if I wasn't there, before almost running out of the room, followed by the others.

I laugh, breaking the silence and, hopefully, the awkwardness.

"Actually, I was remembering the mess from that time when your brother created Komrin." I shook my head bemusedly, "I say, I never did see that jacket again..."

She laughed too. Lenalee is cute. Especially when laughing. Her mouth curves up, her eyes sparkle and curve upwards and these small sulks appear on her cheeks. She's had a difficult childhood (a recurring thing these days), from what I was able to glimmer from what few clues she's given me (like the time with Suman Dark) and a little investigation on my own. The Black Order's history isn't nearly as holy as one could be led to believe. I think she deserves the opportunity to laugh as much as possible.

"Allen-kun, that coat didn't fit you at all!"

"Hey!"

"You had to fold the sleeves several times just to see your hands!" she accused me.

"It was a great coat!" I protested, "It was a promotion when I bought it, too!"

For some reason, the explanation only makes her laugh harder.

"That's just like you!" she managed to choke, "Money, money, money. It's a wonder you ended up in a job that doesn't give you a penny back for your services!" she wiped a tear from her eye with her hand. It's good to see her laugh. It's good to see anyone laugh. It must appeal to the clown in me.

"You're right about that, but there are other advantages." I contested, smirking slightly, "We do a lot of travelling..."

I let the sentence hung in the air. Lenalee had a smile playing in her face, even though she seemed somewhat restless: always shifting her position in the bench, as if she couldn't find a comfortable position to sit. I frown mentally. Had she been injured on her latest mission? I know _I_ once took a blow to the back that made sitting impossible for the following two weeks (I got trampled by a mob running after Master Cross because of his debts). Even just laying down was impossibly painful.

"And?..." she finally prodded, when it became obvious I wasn't going to volunteer any more details.

"And they let me keep all the side-money I make." my smirk blows into a full , cheek to cheek smile, as I reach for my pocket and dig out a deck of playing cards. I shuffle with it as I look mischievously at her, "What say you? Are you game?"

She laughs again.

"Cards? Against you? In your dreams, Allen-kun."

"It doesn't matter if you don't have the money, Lenalee." I insist, "you can just pay my meals!"

"No!"

"Aww... it's O.K.! You can even put it on Komui-san's tab, I don't mind."

Another bark of laughter, "Forget it, Allen!"

Through the corner of my eye I spot Link, still waiting at the cafeteria's counter for his order. Cakes take a lot of time to bake, even with the high technology the Science Department is always creating, but still he insists on eating them for breakfast. And he had the nerve to lecture me about my own menus!

Link's gaze traversed the room and gave us a disgruntled glare, attracted by the noise I was vaguely aware we had been doing. I didn't care. The mess hall was mostly empty at this hour, anyway.

Lenalee must have caught it too, because she commented,

"Auditor Link seems a bit... put off." she said, looking at him.

There's a slight tension at the word Auditor. Link's a subordinate of Leverrier's. I'm no master at subtlety but I'm bright enough to have noticed how uncomfortable Lenalee seems to get with the Instructor. I'm also bright enough not to ask.

"Not my fault!" I said quickly.

Perhaps too quickly. Lenalee turned to me, with that little smile still on her face, and narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

I was quick to capitulate.

"All right, fine! Maybe it is my fault. But the blame can't be all mine when he fails to notice me slipping out of the room!"

"Allen-kun... your supposed to inform him of all your wanderings."

"I fell off the bed almost on top of him and he still didn't wake up!"

Lenalee laughed.

"I can just imagine that!"

I looked at Link, who seems to finally be receiving his cakes and nod absently. The next words left my mouth without me noticing much on their content.

"I swear, If the Fourteenth somehow managed to take a hold of me and blow a hole in my room, Link would wake up in the morning wondering why it was so windy in the room." I joked.

It took me some time to realise how quiet things suddenly got around me. I turned back to Lenalee with a foreboding feeling. She was looking at me with that dead stare again, white as a skull.

"Lenalee?" I asked, almost afraid.

"Don't joke about that!" she hissed.

I blinked and cursed my self for my stupidity.

Lenalee doesn't like it when the subject of the Fourteenth is brought up in a conversation. Truth to be told, no one remained very comfortable speaking about that particular topic, especially if their interlocutor is me, but I get the feeling the issue went deeper with Lenalee. It's almost as if she believed that, so long no one referred to it, no one spoke of the problem, we wouldn't have to deal with it.

"I-I'm sorry." I apologised lamely, "That wasn't very funny..."

"It wasn't fun at all!" she stated forcefully, focusing back on the food, the good mood around us spoiled.

Her hands shook uncontrollably and the food kept falling off her chopsticks every time she tried to take them to her mouth. Finally, with a weary sigh and a movement of frustration, she put them down on the bowl and said, with a clipped voice,

"I'm sorry, but it appears I've lost my appetite."

I watched her go with a sinking feeling and followed her trajectory with my eyes until she left the room, walking in hurried steps, almost running. The image of Lenalee's pale face and her trembling hands returned to the front of my mind and my stomach twisted around itself.

"Did I interrupt anything?"

I turned to Link. My face seemed to be made of lead but I somehow managed to force a smile to appear.

"No... everything's fine."

* * *

I splashed water in my face and felt somewhat better. I looked at the mirror. He's there, of course. The Fourteenth. Looming over me like a carrion bird, following me like a shadow wherever I go, its spectre appearing in any surface polished enough to show even the faintest of reflections. The Jerk had a smile on his black, featureless face...

I'm the only one who can see him. Initially, this led to some interesting scenes, where people would think me crazy when I inadvertently muttered things aloud, seemingly to myself. Or maybe they though I was already falling into the Fourteenth grasp? I don't know...

The memory of Lenalee returned once again.

Was she scared of me? Afraid that I'd turn into a Noah and start killing everyone in sight?

I felt the nausea hit me full force again.

I was such a hypocritical thing. In almost the same sentence where I'd professed my desire to keep her smiling for as long as I could, I go and wipe the mirth off her face.

It was decided then: first chance I got I was going to apologise properly.

We were half-way across to the training grounds, Link and I, when I spotted him. Lavi, the little bastard! He was talking with Marie but he'd obviously seen me because as I accelerated towards him he greeted, from a distance,

"H-Hey, Allen! Good morning!" and tried to use the bigger man as a shield to hide behind.

I literally climbed over an amused Marie to peer at the little rascal over his shoulder and sneer at Lavi,

"You sold me out!" I accused him childishly.

"I don't know what you're talking about." he stated with that infuriating smirk of his.

"How much did Link pay you?" I demanded.

Behind me Link stood, looking to the side as if the situation had nothing to do with him.

"Now, now, Allen, it's not good to dwell on all that resentment." Lavi said, "let it go..."

And bolted, cackling like a madman. I gave quick chase, with Link following behind.

It was grotesquely childish thing to do. I was almost seventeen and Lavi was walking well into nineteen years old, so I suppose we should be have been acting more maturely. But we dealt routinely with things that would leave most adults grovelling on the floor, crying in fetal position, so I think we were entitled some distractions, even if said amusements involved behaving like little kids.

I was almost catching up with him, Lavi playfully crying for help, when we passed the doors for the main hall. Immediately, there was a violent movement to my right side and a spear came crashing down on my face, sending me tumbling to the floor. I felt two sharp blades on my neck, one of them actually drawing a bit of blood and a jolt of pain ran up my nose. I liked the blood that reached my mouth, trying to work out what had happened, when a hateful voice said,

"Freeze, Noah!"

It was two of the guards that usually stood guard around the hall.

Link was on top of them almost immediately, fortunately, or I had a feeling things could have gotten pretty ugly for me then.

"What do you think you're doing? What is your reason for attacking Exorcist Allen Walker?" Link asked, putting emphasis on my rank and name.

The guards snapped at attention, but their voice didn't lose any of its heat.

"We intercepted the Fourteenth pursuing and attempting to attack exorcist Lavi, sir!" one of them answered.

"We restrained his movements!" the other added, looking perversely satisfied with the blood gushing down from my nostrils.

Lavi, who had turned back immediately to see what the commotion was all about, seemed livid.

"Are you idiots retarded?" he asked, looking truly angry for the first time since I knew him, "Can't you see the difference between a game and reality? What part of Allen looks like a Noah?" he demanded, "Is it the grey skin? The cross stigmata round his forehead? Because I don't see any of these on him!" he shouted.

"What're you looking so smug for?" he asked, rounding on the one who had struck me down, "Do you think you would have been able to stop him if he really had become the Fourteenth? You're delusional! AND IT'S JUNIOR BOOKMAN LAVI, NOT EXORCIST!"

Wow! Lavi was mad, all right! Even Link seemed surprised by the outburst.

"He's still a damn traitor!" spat one of them hatefully.

The saliva hit me square in the face and I slowly wiped it off, numb by the shock, my brain refusing to process what had happened.

Link's expression became absolutely frigid, and his face seemed carved from stone.

"You will both be facing an inquiry and an psychological evaluation." he stated in a cold voice, "and I will have you full names and identification codes. You don't need to concern yourselves with guard duty, two of your comrades will be dispatched here soon. The both of you will follow me to the Head Chief's office immediately." he turned to Lavi, "Junior Bookman Lavi," he said turning to us, as he pressed Lavi's title to the chagrin of the guards. Link's good a psychological pressure, when needed, "please escort Walker to the infirmary. I will come along shortly."

And turning rigidly on his heels, he marched out of the room, awkwardly followed by the two other men.

Lavi watched them leave with clenched hands.

"Unbelievable." he murmured through his teeth, "Turning against our own... I never imagined..."

"I've seen it happen before, back when I first met Kanda." I turned to see Marie offering me his hand, "You should know, as a Bookman, Lavi: history is doomed to repeat itself, if we don't learn from our mistakes."

I accepted it with a sigh of weariness, not even suspecting how much of a premonition those words were.

Some days I think I just shouldn't get out of bed.

* * *

**A.N.: This chapter is rough(er). I didn't read it all checking for mistakes.**

**Also to a particular reviewer: Slow down man! Did you see the status for the story? It said in progress! It's not finished! Just because I didn't put Lenalee on the first chapter doesn't mean I messed up the pairings. And regarding Allen's more... complicated speech: this story is told from his point of view ( a new format I'm trying that I don't know if it is being written very well - your thoughts? ) and the manga portrays him as a victorian gentleman, always minding the way he behaves and talks. I tried to reflect that in the way the story is written, although Allen can be more carefree in the privacy of his mind and is a bit more carefree with those he trusts.**

**Thank you for the review anyway, and I hope you return. It would be better to log in before you review (if you ever do again): I prefer to answer in private rather than writting stuff here...  
**


	3. Chapter 3

Fourteenth – Chapter III

Never in the entire time I'd spent as an Exorcist did I face such an inherently evil method of transportation as the one raggedy bus we were currently in. Scratch that; I'd never had such an awful ride in my entire life, my time as Master Cross' student included. I honestly couldn't see what it was the Americans saw in this method of transportation but I am sure it will never catch on back on the Old Europe, where we do things the right way. Give me a nice carriage and I'll take it over one of these so called cars every time.

It didn't help that the weather seemed as dark and gloomy as the car, or that the driver appeared right out of one of those horror novels I sometimes catch Johnny with.

The man and the machine he drove were a study in contrasts. Where the bus was simplistic and devoid of any comforts – such as soft layers between our posteriors and the hard wooden seats -, giving the whole contraption the appearance of an underfed animal, the driver was plump and round, his entire being the definition of softness. The roar of the engine was loud and grating and grave, whereas the voice of the man was low and high pitched. Although it was also grating.

Truly the only thing these two had in common was the spookiness they added to the ambience.

To make matters worse, a light fog was starting to settle, the road we were using had probably not seen a repair crew since the time of King Arthur — if there were roads in America then -, my whole body ached with the stiffness of uncomfortable positions and a headache had been steadily growing for the past three hours.

I leaned my head against the window and tried to let the cold from the glass ease the pain in my forehead. Because it was a useless exercise to try and make out anything in the scenery that sped by us, the dark and the fog obscuring everything mere inches beyond the car, I instead focused on the reflections of my fellow Exorcists.

Bookman was right in front of me, sitting in his dignified manner, seemingly entranced in a deep meditation, while his apprentice, Lavi, freely snored by his side, his mouth hanging open like the entrance to all hells. To my side was the source of all my pains and stiffness. Lenalee had fallen asleep a few hours before and, don't ask me how, had ended up leaning against me, her cheek pressing cutely against my shoulder. In a valiant, though futile – with all the rocking the bus was making -, attempt to keep her from moving too much and waking up, I'd done the manly thing and maintained my position no matter what came through. Although Bookman insisted I had frozen in chock at the contact of a girl like Lenalee... lies.

Anyway, so far Lenalee had yet to wake up so I considered all the discomfort I'd been through a fair trade for her rest.

And, to finish the procession, there was Link, reading a book in obstinate defiance to the holes on the road and appearing slightly peeved at not having been able to sit right beside me. Lenalee had been adamant at taking the spot and for that she had my eternal gratitude. Link liked to sit closer than I'm comfortable with. As I already said once, he takes his guarding task a little too seriously sometimes.

The reason why I'd been preoccupied with Lenalee's comfort was apparent in her face. There were obvious tell-tales of bags beginning to appear under her eyes, a sign that she wasn't having all the rest she needed. Lenalee had been a bit under the weather for the last few days and we all frowned slightly when we learned she'd be accompanying us for the latest mission. Well, almost all of us, anyway. Komui-san had actually complained loudly, shouting until his voice was hoarse, but he'd lost a lot of power in decision making ever since the Church sent the replacements for all the good souls we lost in that invasion by Lulu Bell and the number 4. In the end he was forced to comply with the orders from the Central Offices, though it can't be said he did so graciously.

Komui was _fierce_ when it came to Lenalee's well-being.

Speaking of which.

I turned to Timcampi, who had been perched atop Bookman's seat, and knowing that Komui-san would probably check with him for his ability to record whatever happened around him, said:

"Supervisor. This," I pointed to Lenalee's sleeping form, glued to my right arm, "is not my fault."

A low chuckle erupted from Bookman's throat and he opened his eyes, confirming my suspicions that the Old Man wasn't really sleeping.

"Woe the one caught snuggling with the Supervisor's little sister!" he proclaimed, still chortling, "Walker-san acknowledges this truth and for that he is wise."

To my side Link is sporting an insufferable smirk. I turn to them both, slightly riffled, and mumble, in what I now accept was a sullen tone:

"It's very easy to laugh when you don't have a parasitic Innocence. You're not the ones who have to lie in the operating room while he gets his hands on everything painful."

I managed to spy Lavi's mouth opening in a grin, his eyes still closed, no doubt to try and say something that would undoubtedly make me want to hurt him. I confess, spending hours in an uncomfortable bus such as this one does not do wonders to my disposition.

He never got the chance as two things happened.

First, the gates of the city walls suddenly burst forth from the milky fog in front of us. The driver slammed his foot on the pedal and pulled the handbrake all the way up, almost succeeding in getting Link and I to give a heartfelt hug to Bookman and Lavi – fortunately, we both had enough foresight to keep Lenalee from smashing her head into the front seat. Years of conditioning kicked in and Lavi almost found himself with a mouthful of her boots, as Lenalee tried to ward off some danger that only she, still barely awake, could identify.

Secondly, the bus halted with a loud screech and the driver turned, saying with an unpleasant smirk on his face:

"This is it, strangers. Insmouth."

Groaning slightly we all got up and out of the vehicle and I barely had the time to stretch and pop my back, before the driver took of with a sudden jerk that almost took Link's feet with him. The bus entered the village leaving us in the dusty road. To the side of the gates, two guards eyed us impatiently and with undisguised animosity.

"Glad to receive such a warm welcome." Lavi murmured, "If I were a lesser man, I'd think we aren't wanted here..."

Leave it to Lavi to state the obvious. The animosity was almost palpable as we were led to the decrepit building that stood for an Inn there.

Everything in this place seemed hell bent in dissuading visitors from staying too long. The dreadful weather helped, for sure, but I had my doubts the city would look more inviting in the morning sun. Even the street lamps failed to provide any comfort, casting eerie shadows in a sickly light, instead of brightening their surroundings.

"In an eerie place, there lies Innocence." Lavi murmured.

His face was uncharacteristically grim, but then again probably all of us looked that way. There was no doubt it was difficult to get any eerier then this.

I was starting to ramble again. To distract myself, I took a better look at the people and the buildings, as we made our way to the Inn.

God! It didn't help the mood at all.

The houses were made in wood, in the characteristic way the Americans had developed of basically building a house with prefabricated blocks. But they'd all been left uncared for and had the look of an abandoned household, preferably with a few ghosts to haunt them too. Many of the windows were blocked, either with dirt or with pieces of wood, like people used to do when the owner of a home died. The night and the shadows inside the buildings kept me from seeing anything, but I couldn't help the feeling of being watched.

The people were even worse, if it can be believed. At first glance there was nothing wrong with them. Sure they were rude and downright hostile to us. But there was something about them. Something you couldn't quite catch. It disappeared every time you tried to focus on it but it was there. In the corner of your eye.

It didn't help they looked at us like rabid dogs.

Things being as they appeared, it was decided it would probably be best for us if we all bundled up in a single room instead of renting separate ones for Lenalee, Link and I, as we would probably have done. Lenalee because she was a woman and would want privacy and the two of us because Link probably would have insisted on separating me from the others for safety.

The sound of the door closing and locking us inside the room sounded like the voice of the angels.

* * *

I walked across the plaza, taking in the general feeling of the small coast town. The morning and the sunlight, filtered through the fading fog, hadn't done any wonders in portraying the place in a gentler light. On the contrary, the greater brightness only served to make it even more obvious the levels of decay and abandonment the buildings had suffered. There was a statue near the centre, a monument of some sort to a hero of the war of succession that was long past its time of glory: time and years of abuse had reduced it to a shadow of what it had been, its head cleaved off and lost, the dedication plaque all but unreadable. The whole contraption was surrounded by a wall on top of which stood several metal fences, spiked and unpleasant, in what could be an attempt to protect the monument but that, in the atmosphere that surrounded this god-damn city, seemed to me to be trying to prevent anyone of trying to fix it.

Really, my mood hadn't improved with sunrise at all. I doubt anyone had gotten any sleep. I certainly hadn't and spent the entire night perusing the darkness outside. Not a single glow came from any of the windows in the surrounding buildings at any time. It was as if the tenants were nocturnal creatures who had no need for light at all. Indeed they seemed like the vampire Crowley had been accused of being. People avoided the bright spots under the street lamps and ever since the sun had come out I had yet to see more than a handful of people on the streets.

Depressing and creepy.

In front of the statue stood a bench and Link and I made our way to it, sitting down with a sigh of weary relief in my case and robotic indifference in Link's. Link was always impassive at the best of his moments. The only times in which I had seen him display any emotion was during fights and even then he had a face made out of granite. If there is anything I envy in him – and secretly am trying to attain myself – is his composure. He'd followed me around the town as we sniffed the odd corners of the place. To no avail, as we had been unable to get anything out of both the people and the buildings. It seemed to me that if we were to learn anything about the reported odd stuff happening in this city, we'd have to resort to more underhanded methods.

"There's something strange with that building..." I stated.

To my side, Link nodded silently. Despite the aloofness I had just addressed, there was an undercurrent to his normal mask of indifference. It was a subtle frown, an indication that Link was also disturbed by the city.

I closed my eyes and then opened my left one, as Mana's curse activated per my orders.

Nothing.

There didn't seem to be a single Akuma within the eye's range.

"I can't detect a single thing inside it, even with Mana's eye." I continued in a hushed tone I couldn't explain, as the plaza was completely empty in so far as we could see, "Still... I'm getting a bad feeling from that building."

Indeed it was strange. On the surface there was nothing wrong. It was just a normal structure, of the likes the Americans liked to assign to state buildings, based on the architecture of the old Greeks from Europe. But it seemed out of place, the whole thing, and it wasn't immediately apparent what it was until you realized – it was clean and well kept. It was the only building which didn't seem abandoned or mistreated in any way. And that made us very interested in it.

You see, that's the thing with Innocence and Dark Matter: they have strange influences in reality. Without being under the control of either the Exorcists or the Earl, they start to behave in erratic patterns – Crowley told me once about the Akuma that had lived with him for all those years before he killed her during our meeting. It had developed feelings and a personality while the Earl had left it alone, occupied with his plans. It had become a 'she'. So of course the saying _In an eerie place, there lies Innocence_ translates this propriety very accurately. But, amidst all the insanity than an uncontrolled, rampaging Innocence may induce, the things that appear normal are, more often than not, an indication of _where_ the source of all the abnormality lies. Naturally, we get interested when we spot such tell-tales.

But this was different. The building looked normal but, as I've been stating to the point of nausea, I couldn't _shake_ this bad feeling.

Link seemed to hesitate, before speaking in a casual tone.

"And what is giving you that bad feeling? Your Innocence? Or..." his voice trailed off, but he needn't had continued. The intent was quite clear.

Your Innocence... or the Fourteenth?

Link has the special ability to make one uncomfortable but that question left me with much more uneasiness than it normally would. I never like when someone tip-toes around the subject or tries to use it against me or my friends but, generally, I'm used to the problem that is the Fourteenth. The first days after the revelation were hellish, of course, but, like with all else, time had brought with it numbness. It was like having a new scar when you look at the reflection in a mirror; over time, you stop noticing it and go on with your life. But now... now I was getting the tingly feeling from my Innocence warning me of some anomaly and, at the same time, felt a sense of foreboding that seemed almost alien. Like the oppression in the atmosphere before a storm. It left me with a feeling I had never quite felt before but was also somewhat similar to the one I'd get when close to dark matter. Am I making any sense here?

Frowning, I decided to go with the honest, simple answer:

"I don't know."

During the silence that followed, I observed Link's face. I already said, the guy has a composure of granite but this time there was an undercurrent to his impassiveness, the emotions bubbling bellow the surface. A muscle twitched on his cheek once or twice but, otherwise, he was the very model of composure. The only reason I'd notice it was probably due to the fact that we spend so much time in each others presence.

When you've got someone following you around, glued to your heels, you end up knowing that person fairly well – whether you want to or not.

"Let's go back" I finally said, tearing my eyes away from the clean building, "maybe one of the others had better luck."

* * *

I was munching a candy bar when Lavi, Lenalee and Bookman got back from their search and, after one look at their faces, I knew all I needed to know about the results of their efforts: there were funerals more cheerful than Lavi's face.

"Let me guess..." I drawled, "Nothing?"

Link had been buried in a new book he had fished out of nowhere since we'd returned, frantically shifting pages and mumbling to himself and, after a while, the spectacle got boring.

Lavi let out a sigh with the strength he'd probably have liked to apply in a punch to someone's face and sat down in one of the miserable chairs in the room. Lenalee occupied the place next to me, on the other side of the small table next to the window I'd been peering from and Bookman impassively assumed lotus position right on the floor, close to the door, as was his habit.

"Trying to get any of these people to answer our questions is worse than trying to instil some sense into Komui." He exclaimed, before adding hurriedly, "Sorry, Lenalee."

Lenalee had a disapproving scowl in her face, but it soon gave way to a resigned expression, probably as she recalled her older brother's many stunts.

"All I got were suspicious looks and one-word answers: 'No', 'Never', 'Hm'" he continued, venting his frustration in his mimicry of the peasants.

"They're remarkably close-lipped." Bookman added, in a rare moment where he actually participated in a conversation without prodding from our part, "They're hiding something. This whole hostility to strangers is all to prevent outsiders from learning whatever it is that's going on here... or rather in that interesting white building in the plaza, if I were to guess..."

"We were there, Walker and I, sniffing around," Link offered, finally drawing his attention from the book, although he still marked the page he was in with his finger, "there's something there, some kind of power we cannot identify."

"Could it be the Earl?" Lavi asked, leaning forward on the chair in interest.

"I don't think so." I said, before Link had the chance to answer. He looked at me with an odd look and I decided it would probably be best for me to explain further, "Both Innocence and Dark Matter want to be found. Whenever we get somewhere with one thing or the other there's all sort of rumours usually flying around, attracting people. I always thought of it as being a bit like bait: the Innocence wants a contractor and Dark Matter wants to get a vessel, so they both try to call in as many humans as they can. This is the complete opposite. This thing is keeping quiet. There are no rumours, only silence. Almost as if it doesn't want to be found. It doesn't serve the purposes of either thing."

There was a moment of silence and Bookman said, "That was remarkably well thought, Allen Walker."

I shrugged, uncomfortable with the scrutiny the old man's words had sent my way. I don't do well with being in the spotlight. I don't know if it is because of my childhood, constantly running from my master's debt-collectors or if it has to do with the paranoia of being a constant target by the Earl's forces. So I tried to steer the conversation to away from me.

"Maybe, but it doesn't get us any nearer our objective." I said, pausing slightly in thought, "I think we should try to break in. Maybe tomorrow night. Perhaps even try to mislead the people here by leaving the town and sneaking back in, without anyone noticing..."

Lavi whistled softly, "Dastardly move, Allen... I like it." he finished with a childish smile.

Bookman sent him a disdainful glare, "You would, wouldn't you? But I suppose Allen-san may have the right idea, yet. It is obvious these people are not willing to cooperate."

"Indeed." Link agreed, "More than that they are suspicious of us: I spotted several villagers following our moves, in what they probably thought was a covert way." the disapproval in Links voice was patent and I wondered if it was his Crow pride speaking. The guy was in one of the foremost black-ops organizations in the World, after all... "If we pretend to leave, they might lower their guard enough for us to slip by and do our jobs unnoticed."

"Let's get some sleep then." Lavi said, throwing himself onto a bed, "It's not as if we can do anything right now..."

* * *

**A/N.: Here. Another chapter. You guys may recognise Insmouth as the town in the kickass game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. This is on purpose. "In an eerie place there lies Innocence", right? Well, it can't get any eerier than that...**


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